Is your news editor alone in detecting a strong whiff of ageism around reports the Government will tighten regulations for drivers over 70? Once again we’re all lumped together in one category, this time labelled “dangerous and dithery”. For one thing, the issue is largely self policing. Nobody should object if an optometrist informed the DVLA when a customer’s eyesight made driving demonstrably hazardous. But most of us already have eye tests more frequently than once in three years. We know our sight deteriorates with age, so we tend to avoid driving at night, when the modern headlights of oncoming vehicle produce absurb levels of glare. We also know we are more likely to get tired, so we reduce long journeys and, when they are necessary, take coffee breaks. Consider, too, the countless times younger drivers hover dangerously close to our rear bumpers when we are observing the 70mph motorway limit, a problem rarely if ever policed. Or the fact that Government road desk statistics list only the number of road deaths and accidents “involving” older drivers – not the proportion actually caused by them. And note that the Department for Transport itself concedes that contributing factors in those accidents – most commonly failure to look properly or judge an other driver’s path or speed – are subjective police views and should be “interpreted with caution”.
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